The Rev. Wendell Anthony is one of two metro Detroit leaders on a list by Richard Schmidt, authorities say.

Written by

Tammy Stables Battaglia

Detroit Free Press Staff Writer

Richard Schmidt / Department of Justice/Associated Press

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The names of two local leaders were found on a list compiled by a convicted killer and alleged neo-Nazi sympathizer who was arrested last year with an arsenal of weapons in northwest Ohio, according to the FBI.

The Rev. Wendell Anthony, president of the Detroit Branch NAACP, and Scott Kaufman, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit, were on a list compiled by Richard Schmidt, who was arrested in December by the FBI and other law enforcement agencies in Bowling Green, Ohio.

There were no allegations of ethnic or racial stalking, and it is unclear why Schmidt compiled the list.

The federal public defender who is listed in court documents as representing Schmidt was not available to comment.

"There are some real crazies out there -- folks that don't feel the same way you or I do about justice or civil rights or minorities or other ethnicities," said Anthony from his home in Detroit. "I've been in it too long, the cause is too important, the issues are too critical for us to turn back due to threats or intimidation. It makes us want to engage in advocacy even more, in the work the NAACP has been doing for the last 103 years."

Officials were investigating an allegation that Schmidt was selling counterfeit items through his sports memorabilia store, Spindletop Sports Zone in Bowling Green.

When agents raided his home and the store, and later a separate storage area, they found an arsenal of weapons, said FBI Special Agent Vicki Anderson of the agency's Cleveland office.

"He had one on himself, one in a drawer at his business and a couple at his home, and we took him into custody," said Anderson. "We found the 18 weapons, the 40,000 rounds of ammunition and complete tactical gear."

A filing by federal agents who conducted the raid indicated the items seized included a video of a 2005 national meeting of neo-Nazis and a national list. According to the indictment filed Jan. 16 in U.S. District Court in Toledo, investigators found body armor, 40,188 rounds of ammunition, 12-gauge shotguns, rifles and pistols.According to the Lucas County Clerk of Courts Office, Schmidt pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in 1990 and was sentenced to 10 to 25 years in prison. As a convicted felon, Schmidt is forbidden to posses weapons.

And that's what alarms Kaufman, who was alerted by FBI agents that his name was in Schmidt's notebooks.

"How can someone amass that amount of artillery?" Kaufman asked, noting Schmidt's status as a convicted felon. "Regardless of where you stand on gun rights, that doesn't seem to make a lot of sense."

Kaufman said he wasn't particularly concerned when two FBI agents visited the agency's Bloomfield Hills office in January to tell him about Schmidt.

"It wasn't particularly scary because the first I heard about it, the guy was already in custody," Kaufman said.

Kaufman and Anthony commended law enforcement officials and those who provided information leading to Schmidt's arrest.

"One of the keys to the whole post-9/11 era is communication between civilians and law enforcement, law enforcement to law enforcement," Kaufman said. "And this is an example of where it worked."